The Bear Lake Monster
by Zinfer
Summary: Post-6.12. The brothers find instructions in their father's journal to kill a monster snake once it awakes from a 140 year long hibernation. The hunt doesn't go as smoothly as planned, forcing them to get creative. Hurt/protective Dean, Protective Sam.
1. The Bear Lake Monster

_I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters… something I struggle with every day. T_T I have been inspired by the wonderful SPN fanfiction writers I have come across since I became a fan and wanted some more hurt/comfort than the show provided XD that and I can't get enough of Sam and Dean._

_The legend in this story is an actual legend, and the historical facts I used to make the monster reality are real facts… I just kind of added my own twist to it. Do enjoy!_

The Bear Lake Monster

A clerk from a back road motel leaned on the dirty counter as he watched the flashing neon sign reflect off of a Chevy Impala as it pulled into the small parking lot; a nice change of scenery from the usual sun-stained van or junk car of the regular customers. Two men exited the vehicle and immediately he could tell they were related; it was something about the way they carried themselves and the similarity in the way they got out of the car. The taller one headed to the trunk while the other made his way to the small lobby.

The man walked in, sporting a rustic leather jacket and holding a large milkshake in his hand, which looked somewhat unnatural with the rest of his rugged appearance. He took another sip, the straw revealing the green contents of the mint-oreo shake.

"One room, two queens please" he said casually as if he'd gone through the procedure a thousand times.

"You boys on a road trip?" the clerk asked nonchalantly, sliding two keys across the counter after the man had paid.

"Something like that… of course, aren't most people who stay at a place like this on some kind of road trip?"

"Heh, I suppose so" he grunted, rubbing a hand across the back of his head. "Do enjoy your stay."

"Thanks, we will" the man responded with a grin and a toast of his cup. The cool fall air flowed in through the door as he made his way back to the impala where his brother was waiting with their bags.

The first thing the two brothers noticed as they entered their room was the odd contrast of the cowboy-hat patterned bedspread and the Chinese dragon painting on the wall. The wallpaper was yellow and peeling, but the beds were nicely made and the bathroom clean.

Dean threw his bag to the side of his bed and plopped down, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV to America's Funniest Home Videos. Kicking off his boots, he snuggled into the pillows and sipped more of his seemingly endless milkshake.

"I'm telling you Dean" Sam started, eying the dirty boots his brother had left sprawled on the floor, "drinking something like that is terrible for you."

"Come on Sam, it's a celebration treat for a successful hunt, and how bad can it be… it has mint in it… that's like… a plant, or herb or something…"

"Dean, it's got something like, two thousand calories in it, which might have been alright if you we hadn't already eaten three full-course meals today. You won't last long in our profession if you keep up a diet like that."

"Ya see Sammy, you're looking at this all wrong. If anything's going to shorten our career, I'd say it's the career itself, or perhaps the very fact that we exist. In my opinion, obesity is the least of our worries."

"Well aren't you the optimistic one" Sam mumbled as Dean laughed at a child face-planting on the TV.

"Seriously though, considering the number of times we've died, I wouldn't say I'm being unreasonably pessimistic" Dean continued, turning his gaze from the screen to his brother.

Sam opened his mouth to speak but Dean interrupted his thought by changing the subject.

"So do we have any new leads? I'm hoping we can keep up this easy-salt-and-burn-without-getting-hurt gig we've been managing to do lately."

Sam sighed, reaching into his leather messenger bag and pulling out their father's journal. "Actually, we have something pretty big coming up soon."

"No no, don't tell me. It's someone's birthday… or maybe an anniversary."

"Ha Ha, no. I'm talking about the list of dates that dad wrote down in his journal. I've been keeping tabs on them since we got it and it seems that he had instructions for us coming up in the next week."

Dean cocked his head and looked over at his brother, "I don't remember anything like that being in dad's journal."

"That's because he didn't add it till after the wreck. I guess he was writing this out for us all that time I was out looking for all those items for him to... well... I guess that, rather than a goodbye letter, he left us a list of potential hunts to keep us on our toes and together."

Turning off the TV, Dean swung his feet over the edge of the bed and leaned forward with an expression of curious excitement.

"Well, what's it say?"

Sam flipped through the journal's old pages and opened it up to a double-page spread, turning it to where his brother could see it. There were some doodles drawn of a dragon and some tribal symbols scattered in-between hand-drawn notes.

"This is the creature that dad wrote about; the" Bear Lake Monster." It was first sighted by a Mormon colonizer, Joseph C. Rich, in the 19th century. Though he recanted his claim, many other legends and stories have come about from it; some have said that it's a giant snake with legs that Pecos Bill wrestled with and threw to Loch Ness, where it in-turn became the "Loch Ness Monster," while others claim that it is a plesiosaurian."

"A what?" Dean made his "How the heck do you expect me to know what that is?" face.

"It's like a dinosaur of sorts."

"Holy crap, seriously? I always wanted to hunt down a dinosaur."

"You did?" Sam's eyebrows raised in sarcastic disbelief.

"Sure I did, what kid wouldn't? I mean you watched Jurassic Park didn't you? Who the heck watches that and doesn't want to kick some dinosaur tail?"

Sam let out a short breath of laughter and leaned back on his bed, lifting the book to read.

"Well I hate to burst your bubble, but according to dad, it isn't actually a dinosaur."

"Aw come on Sam, why do you always have to crush my childhood dreams?"

"Says the one who told me at four years old that I had to be able to hold my breath for an hour to qualify to become an astronaut."

"Well Sam, I figured it would be better to blame the NASA recruiting system for you not being able to follow your dreams than to tell you it was dad's fault."

"Moving on" Sam declared, changing the subject back to the journal in his hand, "apparently dad did some research and found out some valid facts of his own aside from the folklore and rumors. The story goes that in 1865 there was a huge controversy between the settlers and the Indians. It lasted two years and apparently was the longest and most violent controversy between the natives and pioneers in Utah history. It started with a dispute between some frontiersmen and the Utes that led to one of the white men throwing a brave from his horse The Indians took great offense to that, in particular a brave by the name of Black Hawk, hence the title of the war being the Black Hawk War."

"Alright alright, skip the history lesson Sammy, where does this dinosaur thing come in?"

The shaggy-haired brother looked at Dean with an expression of annoyance, then continued his explanation.

"Within just a few days of the controversy, the Indians rallying behind Black Hawk had killed five Mormon settlers and hundreds of cattle were stolen; a pattern which continued for the next couple months or years. Black Hawk rallied warriors from all of the different tribes such as the Paiute and Navajo and went about massacring settlements and forts. The pioneers and settlers retaliated and war broke out, the white men chasing the natives across Utah. Though Black Hawk signed for peace in 1867, the violence continued and many Indians, without a leader to rally around became overwhelmed and desperate. This is where our "Monster of Bear Lake" comes in."

Sam stood to his feet and began walking across the room, his father's journal in hand as he continued the story, his finger pointing out particular notes he was addressing as he said them.

"One particular tribe of Navajo Indians had become very developed in witchcraft and ceremonial tradition which allowed them to bless of curse people and things. One of these was _'iińzhįįd, _a sympathetic magic of sorts, which uses the power of one's name or an object in their possession. In this case, they used this curse on a snake."

"So this is just a cursed snake?" Dean broke in, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Well, yes and no" Sam replied. "You see, this creature started out about fifteen feet in length, but when it was cursed it rapidly grew to around thirty-five feet-

"So it's a really big cursed snake."

"Dean, I'm getting to that. The thing about the curse is that other than the snake growing in size, it also received supernatural qualities. Nothing could destroy it; not explosives, bullets, blades, or any man-made weaponry."

"A bit overkill don't you think?" Dean cut in, raising his eyebrows.

Sam rubbed his head and let out a sigh, "seriously, but there's more. Another small addition the curse made to the snake was that it grew these small legs that run down the extent of its body… it's not exactly a dragon or dinosaur, but it bears a resemblance. It protected the Navajo Indians for ten years, but a few months into the last year a small group of pioneers found out about the curse and discovered a way to counter it. They found an offset to the curse by placing a Protectionway sing on…" Sam reached down into their weapons bag and pulled out two scythes "… these babies."

Dean grinned "Haha, heck yes! ... Wait, if they figured out how to kill it then why are we even talking about this?"

"Because" Sam answered "they didn't actually kill it."

"Well then it should have at least died of old age or something by now. What is it, like, a hundred and forty?"

"You know Dean, I really do have explanations for all of the obvious issues that arise in the story, but if you keep interrupting to ask about them it will just take longer for me to explain."

Dean rolled his eyes and scooted back into the pile of pillows, kicking his feet back onto the bed. Crossing his arms and pursing his lips, he made a sarcastic "please continue" face.

"When the pioneers finally managed to take down the snake, fatally wounding it, it managed to escape, making its way back to the Navajo people to die. However, the witch that placed the curse on the snake put another enchantment on it to prevent its passing. This sent the creature into a supernatural hibernation in which it would heal and grow for a hundred and forty years, then return a greater beast, fully capable of protecting their people. That's where we come in."

"Are you kidding me?" Dean exclaimed "So these Indians go and make some indestructible monster snake… then when it finally gets its butt kicked, by some seriously hardcore cowboys I might add, they send it to the friggin future to bother whoever the crap might be living on the land then?"

Sam pursed his lips and looked up, squinting his eyes in thought. "Yeah I guess that sums it up pretty well."

"So the date that dad wrote down in the journal is supposedly the day that this thing wakes up? Why the heck didn't he just kill it while it was asleep? Unless he doesn't know where it is, because if he doesn't have a location then we're screwed anyway."

Sam sighed, "Well, it seems that the enchantment makes it practically invisible during its hibernation, but dad does have a location as to where he believes it will be waking up. What we need to do is get to that location and wait till it comes out of hibernation… hopefully killing it before it fully wakes up."

"And what happens if we don't kill it? Is this thing gonna go find some Navajos to protect?"

"Actually, I think that the first thing it's going to do is find a large body of water. Apparently the snake's natural habitat is in water where it can swim at speeds up to eighty miles an hour, but it has to hibernate on land so we have to take it down before it gets to open water. Despite the witch's intentions for the snake after he put it in hibernation, the snake should be free of any loyalties now that the one who put the curse on it has passed away."

"Great. So we have a giant, indestructible snake with a free will… dad sure had a lot of faith in our hunting abilities."

Sam let out a breath of laughter and sat down on his brother's bed. "I'd say you're more right than you know. Take a look at this." He handed the journal to Dean, pointing towards a small handwritten note at the bottom of one of the pages.

Dean's expression changed drastically as he read the inscription, his green eyes showing an emotion that Sam tried to read but couldn't. It was either sadness, surprise, or confusion but his brother gave no inclination towards any of those so he decided to wait and see if he would share.

The small note read: "You boys take care of yourselves."

The room was quiet for a minute while the older sibling looked over the small book, collecting his thoughts. Finally the silence was broken by Dean's deep voice.

"He really believed we would last this long… and that we would be together. Do you think he had any idea what we would be facing over the next few years?"

"Dunno" Sam responded, a bit disappointed that his brother hadn't given away what he was really thinking, "but he must have thought the hunt was dangerous enough to leave us something. Which reminds me, the snake has probably grown a considerable amount since it first went into hibernation. I'd say it's about double its original size, making it around… sixty to seventy feet long."

Dean let out a huff, tossing the journal to the other side of his bed and taking another sip from his, now melted, milkshake.

"Well, this is gonna be fun. When do we need to head out?"

"If we want to get there a bit early we should head out tomorrow."

"So soon? But we just got off of a hunt" Dean complained.

"Dean, that last hunt was a cinch, and we don't have many other options right now. We can vacation after the snake is dead."

The older brother sighed, then slurped up the last of his milkshake, tossing the empty cup into the small trashcan by the TV.

"Well, if that's the case I'm going to need a good night's sleep for tomorrow. First dibs on the shower!"

With that, Dean hopped off the bed, grabbed a small duffel bag and made his way to the bathroom.

"Oh, so you need the good night's sleep and I don't?" Sam grumbled in annoyance.

"You can sleep in the car on our way there" Dean's muffled voice came from the other side of the bathroom door.

"Thanks" Sam said sarcastically, more to himself than his brother who was currently using up the hot water in the shower.

Soon, both brothers had cleaned up and turned in. The street light shone through the coral curtains hanging from the window, leaving a pinkish hue to the dark room.

"Hey Sam" Dean said, knowing that neither of them had fallen asleep.

"Yeah Dean?"

"You remember how it was a few years ago when we were looking for dad; he would leave us coordinates of places that needed our help and we just followed his instructions blindly."

"It felt like he was sending us on a wild goose chase while we were really trying to find him. Now that I think about it… he was kind of sending us in different directions to keep us from meeting up with him."

"Yeah yeah, that was kind of frustrating, but think about it, we made him proud by saving all of those people and I feel that this is another chance for us to honor him. We get another chance to do one of dad's jobs."

Sam looked up at the dark ceiling, one hand on the back of his head, the other across his chest. It had been a while since Dean had spoken to him about his feelings and he wondered what his soulless self had done to his brother to make him so reserved. Of course, he couldn't blame everything on his "absence" of the last year. How many times had he hurt Dean before that; how many times had he betrayed his brother's trust? He pushed those thoughts aside and responded to his brother's statement.

"Maybe dad wanted to give us a chance to go back to the way things were. Heck, he knew I had the demon blood in me, and surely he knew by now we would have to deal with it. Maybe this was his way of helping us get things back to the way they were at the start."

"I don't think we can go back to the way things were Sammy. We've been through too much crap over the past few years. Heck, we've both been to Hell and back" Dean stated solemnly.

Sam was silent, his brother's words cutting him deeply, like a physical pain. For a while they sat there, neither of them speaking, then Dean broke the silence again.

"What's with the silent treatment Sam?"

"You're a moron Dean. Just go to sleep."

TBC…

Alrighty, a really long and dialogue centered first chapter, but trust me, our boy's lives are about to get pretty hectic. WILL WRITE FOR REVIEWS. Let me know how my first SPN fanfic is going and feel free to leave some critiques. ^_^ thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story when I get to it.


	2. Mud

After several hours of driving, and stopping for two different meals, the brothers finally made their way up the mountain where the journal coordinates were pinpointed. There weren't any hiking trails where they were going but a few miles down from the mountain's peek was a public lake; the open water Sam assumed would be the first place the snake would head to once it woke up.

The two parked the impala off the road, hiding it under one of the drier patches of brush, and hiked the rest of the way through the woods. It was pouring rain when they first left the car, and after hiking for a mile they were treading in ankle-deep mud.

"Peachy" Sam growled as he struggled to remove his right leg from a deep hole of mire. "It's like the Indians cursed the weather to keep anyone from stopping this thing."

"Awwww" Dean mocked, pursing his lips into a pouty face "Iz Sammy upset cause he got his shoes muddy?"

"Shut up" Sam growled, pulling the hood of his Carhartt jacket farther over his head, a few beads of water rolling off its rim; "and why aren't you complaining? Aren't you the one who has to voice any inconvenience or annoyance that pops into our lives?"

"Come on Sam, just because you have a bad attitude doesn't mean I have to."

Sam snorted and treaded on ahead of his brother, his long legs giving him an advantage in maneuvering across the sodden ground.

The rain lightened up after another hour but the sky remained overcast and the forest continued to drip from condensation. It was about that time that Sam came to a stop at a break in the trees. There was a rocky cave in the hillside where the two had decided to set up base camp for the next few days.

"So, it's around here somewhere?" Dean asked, dropping his bags on a dry patch of earth.

"Looks like it" Sam replied, following his brother's lead and setting his bags in the same space.

"Soooo" Dean said, swinging his arms and rocking back and forth on his heals "what do we do, roast marshmallows till the snake pops out?"

Sam sighed and put his hands on his hips, "I guess we should split up and call each other when we see the monster. There's a pretty broad span of area that we should be keeping an eye on so the chances of us finding will be a lot more likely."

"Great" Dean mumbled "walking through the cold forest, all alone, in the friggin rain, and waiting for some giant snake to wake up sounds like a ton of fun."

"Now who's got a bad attitude?"

"Let's just say I'm prayin' that this thing has a major hangover when it comes back to the land of the living."

After the two had set up camp, they headed out together to get a feel of the area so that they would be accustomed to their surroundings if a battle were to take place. Hiking for another hour they came to a stop at an opening overlooking what looked like a lake of solid mud. There was a steep ravine that went down around thirty yards from where they were standing to the foot of the mud pit. Shadows of scattered clouds made dark patterns on the pale mud below and a few light drops fell from the sky.

The two paused to rest from hiking most of the day, though the view wasn't very appealing. Plopping down on a fallen oak tree, Dean pulled out a snicker bar and settled back to enjoy the silence. If he were with a stranger he would have found it awkward to not be carrying on a conversation, but with Sam it was as common as not talking to himself. Sam didn't eat, but walked closer to the edge of the slope taking note of certain landmarks.

He felt his foot slip on something other than mud and steadied himself, looking down to where he had just stepped. The mud around his foot was clumped up and brown water seeped into the hole where his boot had just been. The terrain he had stepped on was unusual so he bent down, wiping away the puddle of water and reaching his hand down to touch the odd surface. It was rough, but somewhat slick at the same time. Cocking his head in curiosity he began to dig away at the dark mud, revealing a paler brown material underneath.

"Hey Sammy" Dean called over "if you wanna make mud pies we can do it when we get back."

"It couldn't be…" Sam mumbled, ignoring his brother's taunts. As he continued to dig up the mud, the odd terrain seemed to stay the same, causing him to grow frustrated in his effort. His digging however led him to an unusual fold in the pale brown terrain.

"What the…" he started, touching the odd lumps "…no way."

"What's up?" Dean asked getting up from his makeshift chair and walking over to his younger brother.

"We might just have the most random strike of luck in the history of our career."

"That's not saying much considering out crap luck."

"Really Dean… this might actually be…" Sam pulled one hand back to where his scythe was sheathed on his belt and the other he separated the folds of the leathery terrain. A huge pale blue eye peeked through the ugly brown lids that he had pulled apart.

"Holy crap, it's the-" he was cut off when the snake's huge head suddenly burst from the ground, slamming its long snout into his chest. Sam yelled out in pain and surprise as he was sent flying off the ledge, nothing but open space between him and the buddy slope he had been looking over minutes earlier.

He heard his brother yell his name and looked back to see the rest of the snake's body rise from the muddy slope. It towered over him, dripping with clumpy mud, and he didn't know whether to brace himself for the fall or for the snake's attack. Time seemed to slow down as he watched his brother leap from the precipice, directly at the awakened monster. He prepared himself for contact with the ground, the last thing he saw was Dean hooking his scythe into the snake's pale-brown skin, dragging it down with the force of his own weight.

The mud lessened the blow to Sam's shoulder when he struck the ground, but the momentum was enough to knock the breath out of him and send him careening down the rest of the embankment. He struck the ground two more times before rolling into the deep mud at the foot of the slope. Immediately he was scrambling to his feet, dazed from the fall but his heart racing with urgency knowing that his brother was taking on the monster snake alone.

As he wiped the mud from his eyes, Sam took in the sounds of battle just a few yards from him. The snake was making an odd puffing noise, resembling that of a deer blowing when it is alarmed. A low hiss could also be heard rumbling from the back of its throat, which must have meant the thing was seriously ticked. Sam blinked away the remaining mud from his eyes and saw that the creature's body stretched from the top of the slope, down to the giant mud pit he had fallen into, where it's lower half was coiled. A long gash ran down from below its jaw to one of the tiny brown legs that protruded a few yards from the head.

He saw that Dean had been thrown back to the muddy slope where he was slipping and sliding to regain his footing. The snake had reared back, balancing its long torso with the scrawny legs that were braced against the damp embankment. It was a very pale brown, its face narrow and long and its fangs small, curved in, and sharp. Every few yards down its body were a pair of tiny legs.

Sam was relieved to find that his scythe was still attached to his belt, and even more relieved that he hadn't landed on it during his tumble down the embankment. Grabbing it, he charged towards the snake as it rapidly began to slide the rest of its body up the slope, sloshing the wet mud in every direction. The creature snapped at Dean, who jumped out of the way just in time, sliding a few more yards down the slick incline than he had intended. He dug his scythe into the earth to slow himself, only to be forced to take another leap as the snake struck out again.

Realizing how much danger his brother was in, Sam took advantage of the distraction and slid to where the snake had braced itself with two small legs. Swinging his powerful long arms with all of his might, he sliced off one of the limbs, causing the monster to let out an enraged hiss and fall back into the mud lake.

The creature was quicker to recover than Sam had expected, its coils twisting furiously in the wet soil as it snapped its head down at him.

"SAM RUN!" he heard Dean yell, but the snake had already shot its monstrous head towards him. He swung his blade up at the reptile's snout, the force of the blow too powerful to be stopped, but his quick block was enough to deflect some of its impact, cutting into the front of the snake's nostril. He fell back into the two foot deep puddle of mud, the breath knocked out of him. Quickly raising his weapon again, he looked up expecting another strike. The snake's bleeding snout was inches from his face when he opened his eyes and he went to bring his blade up again, but was too late. A puff of slime shot out of the creature's mouth, hitting him square in the face.

Sam screamed in agony as the liquid burned his eyes, but his natural instinct caused him to jump away from the threat as the snake struck at him again. He scrambled to run through the mud that came to his knees, but panic rose in him as he realized that he couldn't even see to know which way to go to escape. The snake's spit burned like acid into his eyes and he yelled out again as another burst of pain shot through him.

There was a sudden drop in the terrain under the wet mud, causing him to stumble and fall on all fours, panting in pain and fear. He was blind in a sea of thick mud with a monster snake somewhere behind him. Doing what he had learned to do through all the years of fighting horrific things, he swung his weapon around and turned to face the beast head on.

Suddenly, he heard the voice of his brother yelling; one of the only things that could rid him of his fear.

"Get away from my brother you overgrown turd!"

Sam heard the snake let out another hiss of rage, indicating that Dean had landed another blow. The sound of the creature's huge body slapping mud overpowered his brother's battle cry, a large splatter hitting him head on. Wiping the mire, once again, from his face, Sam painfully attempted to open his eyes, praying that no permanent damage had been done to his eyesight.

He heard Dean yell out and the urgency to regain his vision heightened and he rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of the brown blurs he was taking in. He saw movement to his right as his eyes began to distinguish shapes and motion. He could tell that the snake had circled around to his other side, and to his relief he saw the dark blurry figure of his brother still in action. The creature's movements, to his surprised, seemed to still be centered on him rather than his brother as it circled, apparently holding a grudge that he had cut off one of its legs. He pulled his scythe from the mud and began to make his way back to his feet, his eyes pleading with him to close them so he could ease the pain of the burning acid in them, but he didn't have the time to give into the pain.

Through his blurry vision he looked up to see that his brother had been pushed back with another blow from the monster, skidding back through the mud between Sam and his attacker. Dean stood over him protectively as the snake circled again, its tiny legs making its movements almost insect-like as it tried to find a way past the annoyance between it and its pray.

"You alright Sammy?" Dean asked, reaching a hand down, which Sam took, returning to his feet.

"Yeah" he answered, blinking back tears as he tried to pinpoint where the snake's head was. "Just don't let the darn thing spit on you."

"I noticed… Sam we have to get out of here. This thing is seriously ticked and neither of us are in a condition to fight it off at the moment."

"What, are you hurt?" Sam exclaimed with alarm.

"No no, it's just I can't be watching your blind butt and kill the snake at the same time. We have to –" he was cut off by another strike from the blur Sam took was the monster. Dean jumped to the side, yanking his brother with him.

"Run" he exclaimed, continuing to pull Sam after him. Once Sam had regained his bearings and started to sprint next to him, he let go, both of them slipping through the wet mud as the snake reared back again. His long legs giving his the advantage over his brother, Sam took the lead as they dashed toward solid ground and the edge of the forest where they could find cover.

Suddenly Sam heard Dean stumble behind him and he turned to see his brother struggling to get up from his knees. He moved without thought as he saw the monster bear down on his brother, sliding to stop his momentum, he dashed back to where the older hunter had fallen. Grabbing Dean's collar and shoving him behind himself, Sam raised his scythe once again, hoping that letting his arm flow with the impact of the snake's attack would be enough to deflect it. To his surprise his block worked, and the monster, once again, was averted from digging it's sharp fangs into its prey. The enraged creature was quick to retaliate, striking again as soon as it had steadied itself. This time Sam was ready, shoving the two of them to the side right when the snake went for the attack, missing them by mere inches. At the moment the snake's head struck where the brothers had just been, Sam raised his scythe and slammed the blade right into the monster's pearly blue eye.

The monster let out an enraged hiss and reared back, the rest of its body writhing violently in the mud. It began to flop around, sending the wet sludge flying in every direction as its tiny legs scrambled to find relief. With a final slash of its tail, the creature scurried out of the lake of mud, into the forest, leaving a trail of muck behind it.

Sam let out a sigh of relief and fell back into the mud, exhausted but glad to be able to close his eyes and give them the relief they had been pleading for.

"Wow" Dean panted "that went well."

"Seriously" Sam replied, bringing a hand to his eyelids, hoping that putting pressure on them would relieve the burning underneath.

"You ok Sammy?" Dean asked, his voice coated with worry as he quickly made his way over to his brother.

"Yeah yeah" Sam replied as his brother began to feel over him for any other injuries, focusing his attention on his eyes after he confirmed that there weren't any that were too serious. "Just the darn snake spit in my eyes" he groaned as he squeezed them shut tighter.

Dean wiped away the mud from his brother's face to take a good look at the effect of the saliva, seeing that his skin was raw and red where it had touched.

"Hold on Sam, I'll go get some water" he said, dashing off to fetch the bottles they had left up at the top of the slope. Sam got up and began, in vain, wiping some of the mud off of himself.

He ached all over from the fall and the snake's attacks, but he realized it could have been a lot worse. He hated that he hadn't been able to see the rest of the fight, curious to know how his brother had managed to keep the monster at bay. Then he remembered his brother's yell from earlier and his stumble during their escape. Had the yell been out of anger or pain?

As the thought came to him, Dean returned panting.

"Alright Sam, I hope this helps" he said. Sam leaned his head back and forced his eyes open so Dean could pour the clean water into them. The cool liquid brought more relief to him than he had thought it would, washing away the remaining spit and soothing the acidic sting.

"Dude, you were friggin epic taking out that things eye" Dean said as he saw his brother relax, "thanks for saving my butt there."

"I owed it to you since you were protecting me the whole first part of the fight."

"Sam, you were thrown down a thirty foot slope and got cursed snake spit in your eyes, it's not exactly your fault that you needed some protecting."

"But weren't you hurt as well?" Sam asked, hoping that assuming Dean was injured would make him fess up.

"What? No. I mean I was tossed around a bit, same as you, but I'm fine" he responded, but the over defensive tone of his voice made the younger sibling doubt his words.

"But you fell when we were trying to escape."

"So? I slipped."

"You don't just "slip" during a retreat Dean, I know you."

"Well sorry I slipped this time Sam, it's not like we were running through two feet of mud or anything."

"Ok, then let me look you over just to be sure."

Dean jerked away from Sam as his brother reached for him.

"Alright alright, so I'm a little hurt, but we don't have time to be worrying about it right now. That snake's making its way down the mountain to the first water source it can find which just so happens to be a public lake, and we need to stop it before it gets there."

"We won't do any good trying to stop it if you're injured without any first-aid. Just let me take a look at it for a second."

"Sam, if that things this tough to take down on land, I don't even want to know how much of a pain it will be when it gets to its natural environment. We have to beat it to the lake and we simply don't have time to be doing patch-up right now."

Dean stood back up to his full height as he spoke, Sam noting him trying to be subtle about his arm wrapped protectively around his side and how his freckles stood out against the paleness of his skin.

"Of course… I have no idea how we're going to stop this thing" he said as Sam followed him in standing to his feet. "Have any ideas?"

"As a matter of fact I do" Sam replied, looking over at his muddy brother who responded with a smug grin.

"Then tell me as we go" he replied, turning to re-climb the muddy slope which was in riddled with deep gouges where the snake had been.

Sam frowned, worried about his brother's condition and frustrated that he couldn't do anything about it yet. Letting out a sigh, he followed Dean's lead and the two brothers, who were both brown with mud, hurried to catch up with the monster they had just faced off with.

TBC…

Alrighty! The story is moving right along! Hopefully you guys are enjoying it. WILL WRITE FOR REVIEWS.

I really appreciate all of the support so far (even though I'm new to the world of SPN fanfiction writing). I got some corrections and help for the first chapter so I will update that with those mistakes fixed (for the most part).

Dreamlitnight- thanks for taking a look at my story and I hope you enjoy the rest of it ^_^

Dizzo- I am sooo excited to get a review from you! You are very kind! I'm really glad you approved of the first chapter! Dean and Sam are such wonderful characters and my goal is to keep them in character as best I can so not to soil their original awesomeness. XD yay! Go google that mess!

Queen Bee- Thank you so much for the review! It was encouraging and also helpful (thanks for the edit, I fixed it ^_^) I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.

Smalld1171- Thank you so much for taking time to look at my humble little fic! I am very excited to get a review from you since I do love your stories so much! You were so encouraging! I shall try very hard to do a good job!

Slinky-and-the-BloodyWands- lol XD seriously, who can resist a giant snake story? Thank you so much for the review! It made me very happy and I hope that you enjoy the rest of the story ^_^

Thanks again!


	3. Physics

Physics

"You want to roll a friggin camper on the thing?" Dean exclaimed as he struggled over a fallen tree. He had lost his lead on his brother a few minutes earlier and was falling noticeably behind.

"Well if you say it like that" Sam sighed, no longer bothered by the mud sucking at his feet.

"It just sounds a bit ridiculous" Dean added.

"But I explained it so it didn't sound ridiculous…" Sam paused, noting his brother's heavy breathing. Hoping to fool Dean into thinking he wasn't stopping for his sake, he pulled out the map to emphasize his plan.

"You see this…" Sam started, pointing to a long line that cut through the map, tracing it across the page "… this is a creek that runs down this mountain. It's usually only a few inches deep but I'd guess that due to the rain it's going to be a bit larger; the perfect trail for our monster to go down to get to…" he pointed to a large blue oval "… a main water source, like this public lake here."

Dean nodded in understanding, trying to hide his labored breathing.

"Well" Sam continued, moving his finder a few inches diagonal to the lake "right here is the location of a tourist camping ground… like for trailers and RVs. Now, if we can get to the car and "borrow" one of the campers before the snake reaches the lake, there's a chance that…" he pointed to a spot next to the creek "… we can beat the snake to this point of the creek and catch it and kill it."

"… by rolling a camper on it…" Dean stated in disbelief.

"Yes Dean, by rolling a camper on it" Sam repeated in annoyance.

"Can't we just play chicken with it with another car?"

"You think we can get a vehicle and drive it up a creek into an indestructible snake and hopefully it will get caught in the windshield?"

Dean rolled his eyes "hey, don't go making my idea out to sound ridiculous when you just spit out all that nonsense."

"It's not nonsense Dean, I really think this can work if we time it right."

"Alright alright" Dean complied "well we don't have much time now, that thing got some headway on us."

Sam smiled, "at least its missing an eye and a leg. That should slow it down a bit."

"Too bad it had a dozen more to spare" Dean grumbled, following the taller hunter as Sam refolded the dirty map and shoved it into his back pocket.

"Hey Sam…" Dean spoke up after they had hiked another hour "do you think this snake is poisonous?"

"Dad didn't mention it in the journal, and the creature's got enough going for it that I can't imagine that it would even need poison… why? Did it bite you?"

"What? No! I'm just thinking, the thing spit in your eye, and we might need to be finding you an antidote."

Sam looked back at the blond who, despite his slowed pace, was struggling even more to keep up with him. His brother was doing an impressive job at hiding any hint of injury or pain from him, but there was something in the way his eyebrows creased with each step that caused the mask to slip enough for Sam to pick up on his discomfort. What frustrated him was that Dean's black jacket covered any signs of blood on his upper body, and his jeans were sodden with dark mud, leaving no physical evidence of injury.

"Well" he sighed "it burned like crazy, but I'm not feeling sick or woozy. But seriously man, let me take a look at your wound."

"Gosh Sam, you're overreacting. Wouldn't I tell you if I was seriously hurt?"

"Probably not" Sam replied with bitter sarcasm as he turned away from his brother again.

Dean paused, then raised his eyebrows with an expression as if to say "good point."

After another hour of hiking the two finally found themselves at the road they had left only that morning. Both exhausted, they rushed as quickly as they could to uncover the impala and get inside.

"You want me to drive?" Sam asked as nonchalantly as possible, hoping that if Dean didn't think he was worried about him he would think logically for a change.

"Nope" Dean replied, seeing right through his brother's charade.

Sam didn't bother arguing, there was no time to sit around trying to convince his brother that he needed medical attention. If anyone knew the blond hunter's stubbornness, it was Sam. So he let out a huff, rolling his eyes and sliding into the passenger's seat. Dean smirked over at him and shifted the car into gear, the engine rumbling powerfully as it skidded back onto the road and took off in the direction of the campgrounds.

A few minutes went by in silence as they drove, Dean scowling back at Sam when he spotted him trying to look over him for injuries. To the younger brother's dismay, the only thing he could really detect aesthetically different about his brother were the tears in his jacket, and the earlier symptoms, which had grown worse since the trek back, like his ever-paling demeanor and creased eyebrows.

Thanks to Dean's borderline insane driving, the two arrived at the campground in half the reasonable time it normally would have taken them. There were a few tourists about, mostly families sporting picnic baskets and fishing poles.

"Its funny how our lives always seem to be on the outside looking in" Dean said as he started to coast the car around, looking for an unoccupied camper they could snag. "What do you wanna bet half of these people are on their way to the lake without even realizing we're working our butts off to keep them alive?"

Sam let out a huff of unenthusiastic laughter, then pointed towards an isolated patch of forest where there was empty pavement and a slick metal Airstream camper, still propped up on wheels.

"Perfect" he said as Dean pulled the car up and it was clear that there was no one around.

"Yeah, you picked to coolest camper here to total. It's a real shame" Dean sighed regretfully as he parked the impala and pulled himself out the door.

"It's sad yes, but the shape is perfect for what we have in mind, and there's no one home. You think we can get away with hitching it up and driving off without anyone noticing?"

"Sam, if there's anything we've learned over the last few years it's that we can get away with pretty much anything as long as we look like we know what we're doing."

With that said, the two went to work, Dean unhooking the water and electricity while Sam dealt with attaching the trailer hitch to a jeep he had hotwired.

"Man, we are seriously going to ruin these people's vacation" Dean said regretfully as he rushed back to the vehicle where Sam was waiting inside.

"I think I can make it up to them if this all works out" Sam replied, resting his arm on the open window.

"What'd you do, leave them an apology note? You have such a big heart Sammy."

"You'll see" Sam said as he revved up the engine.

Dean let out a grunt of laughter and made his way to the Impala.

Sam drove almost as recklessly as his brother as they rushed to the location he believed would be the most likely place the snake would be traveling through, and the most likely place that his plan would actually work.

Pulling the jeep into an overlook, he put it in park and got out to go over the plan with Dean who had parked the Impala a few yards away. The way he reached his right arm up and used it to slowly pull himself out of the driver's seat, his left arm still wrapped protectively around his torso, was a flashing sign to Sam that he was seriously injured. Shutting the car door, Dean turned back to his brother, the implications that he was hurt back to their usual veiled secrecy.

"So now we just drive this thing to the creek you were talking about? With all the underbrush around here it looks like it's going to be a pain- what the-?" He was interrupted as his younger brother shoved him into the side of the Impala, pushing his arm away and firmly placing his palm on his inflamed stomach.

Dean let out an agonized grunt under the pressure, slapping Sam's arm away. The taller hunter lifted his hand to see that it was stained with crimson. He felt his stomach flip in worry as he acknowledged that, whatever injury his brother had received, it had bled enough to seep through the heavy jacket he was sporting. With that, his worry shifted to anger at his brother's apathy for his own care.

Shoving his bloodied hand inches from the blond's face, Sam raised his voice.

"What the heck Dean? You're bleeding dry and you won't even let me take a look at it?"

"Get off me!" Dean growled, shoving his brother away from him and making his way towards the Airstream trailer.

"No Dean, this is serious, if you don't receive medical attention soon you-"

"Sam" the Dean interrupted, turning back to his brother "what's serious is this monster we need to take out. Believe me, I'm not enjoying this any more than you are but we have a short allotment of time before this snake slips through our fingers and starts killing innocent people."

He looked up into Sam's concerned puppy face and sighed, "I promise that as soon as we're done with this job I'll patch myself up efficiently; that work for you Sammy?"

His younger brother looked away dejected, but he nodded.

"Alright, now let's go kill this thing" he said, his green eyes not breaking contact with Sam.

It wasn't as easy as Sam had hoped to get to camper down to the creek on the map (which had no way of marking where underbrush was). Dean had made his way down the slightly elevated slope and directed his brother as he backed the jeep down the hill. The jeep managed well on the wet earth as it slid in reverse through the overgrown weeds, briers, and baby trees.

Through their combined efforts, they managed to make good time down the hill till they came to a break in the underbrush where the red earth went on for another few yards then dropped off. Dean made his way over to the edge, looking down over a steep slope that went on for about a hundred yards where it was cut off by a wide stream of muddy water that had clearly been flooded by the heavy rain of the last few days.

He directed Sam the rest of the way down until the Airstream's broadside was at the edge of the embankment. He unhitched the trailer from the jeep while Sam went off to find some thick branches or metal beams for leverage, looking first inside of the camper, then rushing into the woods. Through his efforts he came out with two metal beams, of which Dean assumed came from the table and the bed inside the Airstream, and a few sturdy branches about ten inches thick. What he was most excited about was the long rope he had found in the jeep and immediately he began tying it to a thick tree a few yards behind the camper. He then rushed over to the Airstream and broke the glass from one of the windows, wrapping the other end of the rope inside and pulling it through the door where he tied it securely.

Stepping back, he grinned proudly at his work, then looked over at his brother for approval. Dean pursed his lips as he glanced over the set up, as if he wanted to be impressed but had no idea what he was looking at.

Sam sighed, "the rope is going to hold the camper while we tip it over so it doesn't fall before we intend it to. That way, when the snake comes down the creek, all we have to do is cut the rope and it will fall."

"Makes sense to me" Dean said, his expression showing the approval Sam had been anticipating earlier. "How are we gonna know when to cut the rope?"

"Well" Sam answered, placing his hands on his hips, "if the snake is traveling around thirty miles an hour, once we spot him on that upper ridge" he pointed upstream "we should have about forty seconds before we cut this thing free. If my math is right, this thing weighs around two tons and is falling down a hundred and ten degree angle, they should collide a few seconds after we cut the rope."

Sam looked over to see Dean staring at him, eyebrows raised, his lips pursed again as he made the same blank expression again.

"Geek."

"Shut up Dean. How many geeks do you know hunt eighty-foot cursed snakes?"

"One I guess" he replied grinning, "so we need to tilt this thing?"

Sam let out a breathy laugh, then nodded, handing his brother a metal beam.

The two shoved the make-shift crowbars under the heavy camper, Sam eying his brother worriedly, knowing he was in no condition to be doing any strenuous activity; but he couldn't argue the fact that he couldn't do this alone. Just as he feared, Dean could no-longer hide his pain as he puts tension on his body, an expression of anguish crossing his pale face. Sam wanted to stop, to rush to his brother's side and force him to sit down and rest, but there was no time. His anger over the situation giving him emphasized strength as the trailer finally tilted far enough that its weight rested on its balanced side and the rope.

"So now we just wait for this thing to show up?" Dean heaved; his voice weak.

"Yeah, and pray that the thing didn't go a different direction."

"That would really stink."

"Seriously."

Only five minutes passed before they saw what they had been waiting for. If they hadn't been watching for it they wouldn't have seen the huge snake sliding through the muddy water; its brown skin camouflaged in the dirty creek it was trekking down.

The two remained silent as they waited anxiously as the creature passed over the ridge Sam had pointed out earlier and the both of them started to count down in their head.

Forty seconds passed and the snake stayed on course so Sam, holding his breath, cut the rope.

TBC…

And another chapter finished! WILL WRITE FOR REVIEWS! Thank you all so much for the encouragement so far! This story is moving a lot faster than my other one ^_^ which is cool for me.

Mystique Aqua- Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying it ^_^ we'll have to wait and see what Dean is hiding from Sam ;) thanks for the review!

Smalld1171- ohh, that makes me sooo happy :D I'm glad we share a liking for hurt Dean (which might maybe happen in the upcoming chapter _) You have been so encouraging! Thank you!

Dreamlitnight- thank you so much! I hope you continue to enjoy the story and the rest of the action which is on its way.

Slinky-and-the-BloodyWands- thank you so much! I love me some action in a story ^_^ I'm so glad you enjoyed the scene and that the imagery worked out (at least to where you could see it XD)

DarknessofSupernatural86-it seems like he did _ thank you so much for the review!

Mustang71- thanks! And you may ^_^

Gett- I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Your review was so encouraging. I know stumbling across the snake within the first few hours of searching is a bit ridiculous, but it's the Winchesters, and a fictional story in which I can make it as ridiculous as possible. XD

Brightshadow-chi- why thank you ^_^ I'm so glad you liked it!

Thanks again to all of you! and I hope to update soon!


	4. Easier Said Than Done

The second the rope snapped, the Airstream camper began to slowly roll down the mud slope, building momentum as it slammed against the wet earth. Holding their breath in anticipation, Sam and Dean watched as the snake neared the place of impact. The trailer crashed noisily, spinning a few more times before landing with a shuttering bang into the flooded creek below as the monster crossed its path.

The snake had spotted it a second too late and tried to slip past the obstruction, managing to save its head and forelegs from being caught. However, the camper landed efficiently across its upper-midsection, the curse on the snake's its body the only reason it hadn't been crushed.

The two brothers let out a victorious yell.

"I can't believe that actually worked!" Dean exclaimed in admiration.

"To be honest, I'm pretty surprised myself; but we still need to kill it. It won't be long before that thing gets loose. Dang, I had hoped for the camper to land closer to its head so it wouldn't be a threat."

"Oh yeah Sam, you should be really disappointed that you didn't manage to roll a trailer directly onto the head of a moving snake. Can't you do anything right?"

Sam snickered at his brother's sarcasm, "yeah well, whatever the case, we need to kill the darn thing pronto."

With a nod, Dean rushed over to the longer strand of rope and wrapped it into loops around his forearm.

"Alright" he said as he followed Sam down the muddy trail the camper had left behind, "one of us needs to hold back that thing's head and the other is going to take it down. Both options sound like a ton of fun, so which works for you?"

"I'll do the killing; you just make sure I don't become snake food."

"Works for me" Dean responded, surprising Sam a bit that he didn't fight for the more dangerous job.

"You sure you're up to holding back a giant snake from killing me in that condition?" he asked in doubt.

"Heh" Dean responded "I'd rather trust myself to keep you safe than for you to keep me safe" he replied sarcastically.

Sam didn't return the laugh, his brother's words hurting him even though he knew it was in jest. There was no time to be worrying over it however as they both slid to the bottom of the small gorge, the trapped monster only a few yards away.

Dean quickly tied the rope into a lasso and they both charged forward, trusting each other to know what to do. Fortunately they were coming from side of the monster's blind eye so it hadn't noticed them as they approached; Sam making his way directly in front of the snake, holding both scythes, while Dean slipped into its blind spot.

Sam bravely made his presence known before the creature, trusting in his brother's ability with a lasso since he had been through the same rigorous training with their father.

The snake had been writhing and twisting to free itself, the water flowing by it splashing with each slap of its tail and scrambling legs. Once it had spotted the tall hunter before it, it let out an enraged his that rattled the back of its throat and it struck out at him. Both brothers had been anticipating it's attack, Sam leaping back while Dean smoothly threw the open loop to where it hovered in the space where the snake's jaws were headed. The plan worked well as the noose caught around the creature's snout, though it didn't catch the lower jaw as he had hoped.

Still, Sam was impressed at his brother's ability to snag it on the first try, it had been a beautiful shot.

The noose tightened around the creature's snout and the slack in the rope snapped in tension against its powerful weight. Dean let out a grunt as he strained to keep the monster's head under control, digging his legs into the soaked ground. The water from the overflowed creek had been redirected by the trailer's obstruction and several different smaller streams had been formed around it, lapping up against the brothers' weary torsos.

The moment the rope had tightened on its face, the snake grew even more furious, thrashing its head around in rage. Dean couldn't keep his footing, the strength of the creature more powerful than his own weight. Still clinging to the rope he was yanked into the air, landing on the other side of the creek with a splash of red mud.

"Dean!" Sam shouted in worry, but his brother was already scrambling back to his feet, trying to regain control of the large beast.

"Don't come Sam!" he shouted as he was jerked again, sliding into a deeper flow of water; "not yet!"

Sam ignored him, rushing forward to distract the snake from his brother who was in critical danger.

Seeing another threat, the snake let out an enraged hiss that vibrated the Airstream holding it down. Opening its jaws wide, it lifted its tongue and Sam knew it was about to spew its acid spit. The creature flailed its head about as the stream of saliva shot out of its mouth, sending it in every direction.

Covering his face with his hands, Sam felt the burning liquid hit his skin, but he sure as heck wasn't letting it get in his eyes again. Then he heard a sound that made his stomach leap to his chest.

Dean was screaming in pain.

Yanking his hands away from his face, he saw his brother had fallen to his knees, breathing heavily like he was panicking to regain control. His grip on the rope still remained and he was jerked violently again by the snake's strong body, sending him slamming into the side of the Airstream.

He shouted out again, but scrambled to get back to his feet.

"DEAN!" Sam shouted in fear, now in range of the monster's huge jaws, but to scared for his brother's safety to think about his own. He saw the snake hover over his brother, gazing down at him with its one blue eye. Dean slumped back against the silver roof, sliding to the watery ground, only able to gaze back up at it in fear.

"Oh no you don't you friggin turd!" Sam shouted, using his brother's vocabulary.

Sam threw one of the two blades at the creature with well-trained aim, lodging the scythe deep into the monster's long neck. Its focus re-directed back towards the taller hunter, the snake let out another rattling hiss, snapping its head in his direction.

Dean was quick to recover, scrambling back around the end of the camper which had landed on its side, the roof aimed down the slope they were on. At first Sam wondered what he was doing, but as he saw him start to climb along the backside he figured he was up to something useful. There was no time to figure it out; with Dean's distraction gone, he was the center of the monster's enraged attention.

He needed to focus, but his brother's occasional shout of pain (of which he was dying to know the source) kept redirecting his gaze. It was clear that Dean had been trying to keep his bursts under control, trying to replace his yells with grunts, then going back to heaving in exhausted agony.

The snake caught his attention when it snapped at him again. He managed to block it but it knocked him down, sending him sliding with the flow of muddied water several yards. Motivated by the danger his brother was in, he was quick to return to his feet and charge again, wishing he had the other scythe back. The creature was waiting for his return, its head reared back and darting back and forth, waiting for the right time to strike. He was glad that it was caught under the trailer; otherwise there would have been no safe range. The snake seemed to realize that he wasn't coming any closer and re-directed its attention to Dean. That didn't sit well with Sam so he took the risk and rushed closer, into its striking range. It immediately lashed out at him, but he was expecting the attack, jumping to the side. The beast didn't rear back again, but instead it began spraying its acidic spit full-blast, twisting its head around to direct it at the human annoyance.

Sam quickly covered his face with his arm again, blocking the liquid as it rushed over his clothes, which would have bothered him had he not already been drenched. The snake was still far enough away to where it couldn't get a full strike on him, but to his surprise, it managed to snag his heel with the tip of its teeth, digging them painfully through his boot and into his ankle. Realizing it had finally gotten a hold of its prey, the creature yanked the hunter's foot towards itself, toppling him as it did so. Sam yelled and drove his scythe into its snout but the monster held firm, this time lifting him into the air and slamming him into the muddy earth closer to itself. The blow knocked the breath out of him and for a minute he couldn't bring his arms to push himself up from the puddle he had formed out of the scattered mud and water. His ankle was definitely messed up, he knew that much, and possibly he had some broken ribs, but he needed to get up before he became snake food.

By the time he had the strength to turn himself over, he knew that something was keeping the monster from chowing down. He had been down for too long. Looking up he saw that the rope that had been slack from its snout for the past few minutes was tight again, holding the enraged creature at bay as it thrashed to finish him off.

He looked over to see that Dean had made his way to the top side of the camper and busted in a window, dropping himself down into the small opening, and had braced himself against the frame; his torso halfway out of the airstream and his legs bracing him against the inside of the roof.

Sam grinned at his brother's creativity, but it was swept away as he saw that he was clearly struggling to keep his hold on the rope, pain etched across his face with each tug the monster gave.

Despite his screaming ankle, Sam rushed forward, realizing that he had a small slot of time to kill the creature before him. Fearlessly, he made his way up the slope once again, slipping right up to the monster's belly where his other scythe was still lodged; for that, he was grateful because he had lost the second one when it had thrown him to the side.

Blood spewed from the open wound as he yanked it out, the beast releasing an agonizing hiss and its legs began to scramble in an attempt to free itself but its head remained pulled back by his unseen captor in the trailer. Without hesitation, Sam swung the blade smoothly across the monster's underbelly, forming a deep slice in the leathery skin, flipping the handle in his hand and coming across it again from the other side. He had been trained to not hack at his target, but to let the blade slide across the flesh, slicing rather than chopping.

Suddenly, the creature's head came loose in its maddened writhing and it snapped down at him. He had been keeping a wary eye on the withheld beast, so when it got free he immediately dropped to his stomach to protect his vitals, knowing that running would do him no good. He felt the hood of his jacket pull as it was snagged by sharp teeth, a much better scenario than he was expecting. Looking up he saw that the snake was once again restrained to where it couldn't manage to get far enough to get its jaws around him, though it had gotten a bit more leeway on the rope. A sensation of alarm came over him as he was lifted from his position on the ground, the creature pulling him up by his hood.

The elevated height allowed him a glance at his brother, who, as the rope slacked again, wrapped the excess length around his forearm to reinforce his grip. He ignored to screaming panic in his chest upon seeing the blood covering the blond's hands, and allowed himself to slip out of his hoodie, dropping back into the watery mud below; once again out of danger's reach.

Wasting no time, me got back to his feet and began cutting into the snake's underbelly. Its hiss grew into a screech as it jerked again against the rope, slamming it so hard that the entire camper began to keel over with the pull. The rest of the creature's body that extended behind the trailer was writhing and curling up into the obstruction, wracking it even more.

Sam continued to slice into the beast, ignoring the threat of the Airstream toppling over, ignoring the snake's enraged hiss only a few feet above him, ignoring the burning pain in his ankle and ribs, but struggling to ignore the heavy breathing and pained yells coming from the topside of the trailer.

Blood was spewing everywhere as he cut in again, the snake twisting its head in every direction in an attempt to free itself, but Sam could tell it was weakening. The hiss had become a sickening gurgle as the creature's trachea was sliced open and the red liquid flooded its airstream. The lower part of its body seemed to develop super strength as its panic grew, twisting and shoving into the camper that was holding it down. The Airstream tipped dangerously again and Sam heard his brother let out a startled shout of exclamation as the balance was thrown off.

For a moment, as he continued to cut urgently into the rest of the snake's neck, he feared that it was going to free itself, but with three more gashes formed by his scythe, the head was severed and it fell to the ground. The rest of the body continued to writhe and twitch and the monster's jaw continued to snap at him, like it wanted one last attempt at vengeance. He backed away as the head jerked in the wet mud, the one blue eye remaining fixated on him until the snapping jaw finally went slack, leaving a sickening spectacle of blood and a the revolting smell of flesh.

Sam didn't waste time looking at the beast he had slain, but rushed over to the Airstream and looked up to see that the window his brother had been in seconds earlier was empty, his stomach clenching in worry as he saw blood smears on the window frame

"Dean?"

No response.

"DEAN!"

TBC…

Whew! Another chapter up! Thank you all so much for he reviews! I cherish them so much ^_^

I hope you enjoyed the latest.

Mustang71- thank you so much for the encouraging review! ^_^

Dreamlitnight- yes yes, that Dean -_- that's why I love to write me some h/c with him, cause I love how Sam cares about him

Slinky-and-the-Bloodywands- lol, indeed. Thank you for your kind donation XD it's so true, you never know when you might need to kill a giant snake, so high school math is a great way to prepare if nothing else. Lol, I'm glad you enjoy stories about giant killing creatures ^_^ because I sure do! thank you so much for the encouraging review hope u like the rest of the story

Gett- of course he would, but I doubt he can hide it for much longer. No excuses now XD thank you for the encouragement! I really appreciate your support

Smalld1171- yay! Thank you! And heck, I love your stories! Always a fun read and the dialogue is enjoyable ^_^ love what you do with the characters. Hopefully I will be able to write a few more before life reminds me that I can't live on fanfiction alone XD they're a lot of fun to write because SPN has such a wide spectrum of options to write about. (and the characters are great to work with).

Catsluver- Thank you so much or the encouragement! I hope you enjoyed the final battle and will enjoy the upcoming Dean-patching to come ^_^ *im not gonna bother saying "spoilers" because it's kind of a given XD*

Dizzo- Ohh! I get so excited when I see a review from you cause your one of my fav SPN authors! Thank you so much for the support and feedback. I love me some crazy monster and hurtDean (cause I'm evil like that, but I think we're on the same page there XD) Oop! I had no idea O_O thank you! Dean is in no way a feminine character! I will get to fixing that right away! (whew, that will be so helpful in the future). Thanks again! And I look forward to reading updates from you ^_^


	5. Hurt

Sam's heart raced as he scrambled up the airstream, skidding to the broken window and looked down to see that his brother had fallen into other side of the wall that was sinking into the mud. Dean was lying awkwardly on some broken cabinets he had landed on, his eyes shut tightly and seemingly unaware of Sam's presence.

Sam felt something in him break as he saw his brother writhing in pain, breathing heavily and then letting out long agonizing groans that he knew was Dean's way of suppressing a scream. He looked like he was trying to curl in on himself but his awkward positioning and weakness prevented it, causing him to fall back like he had attempted a sit-up and failed.

"Dean!" Sam shouted as he slipped through the window, slowly letting himself down with his long arms till he could drop the rest of the way. He let out a grunt as his injured ankle was jolted but ignored it as he rushed to his brother's side.

Upon realizing Sam's presence, Dean fought harder to control his breathing and grunts but the effort forced him to gasp for breath after every short period of silence. He forced open his eyes and turned his head to look at his worried little brother. This surprised Sam because he was sure that the snake had spit on his brother and had assumed it had gotten into his eyes after he heard him scream.

"Burns Sam-" Dean gasped as the younger hunter gently shifted him into a more comfortable position.

Sam pulled the scythe he had re-attached to his waistband out and quickly cut into his brother's shirt, impatient to ease his suffering. When he pulled apart the fabric he had to catch his breath and look away to keep from vomiting.

"Come on Sammy" Dean tried to say lightheartedly, but continued to struggle with each labored breath "suck it up, you've seen worse." Even as he spoke he was forced to let out a restrained yell, followed by gasps that seemed to be pleading for the pain to end.

Sam looked back at his brother's bare stomach, trying to clear his thoughts and efficiently assess the damage.

There was a huge bite mark that stretched across his entire stomach, each puncture wound inflamed and oddly bubbling. He imagined that there was a similar injury on his brother's back from the snake's lower jaw. It was then that Sam realized what had caused Dean to cry out was that the creature's saliva had seeped into the open wound. The thought of it made him shudder, remembering the agony he had been in when it had gotten into his eyes and he could hardly comprehend how much pain it was causing his brother.

He pushed the thought aside and pulled back to torn fabric further, grimacing as he saw that Dean's muscular stomach was covered with dark bruises; most of them around the area of the bite, while another set ran straight across his chest where he had been slammed up against the window frame. The bite's puncture wounds were small like the snake's teeth, but they went deep, some had been ripped across his abdomen, probably due to the creature throwing him.

Sam closed his eyes as he remembered what had heard during the earlier fight. He remembered Dean yelling out and the sound of mud being scattered around as the battle continued. A chill rushed down him as he remembered opening his eyes and seeing his older brother standing over him, protecting him from the monster. It was hard to believe that Dean had been able to stand with an injury so extensive, none the less defend him from a giant snake.

The blond's stomach heaved up and down with each pained breath, catching with every jolt of pain the acidic saliva seeped into his system. Blood was everywhere, indicating that whatever scabbing or clotting had been done since the infliction of the wound had been re-opened with the trauma of holding the snake back.

Knowing that the most important action to take was to get the wound washed clean of the burning spit, at least to ease the suffering on his brother's part a bit, Sam began digging through the cabinets and the small fridge for bottled water. He prayed that the travelers had packed some as he struggled to bear with hearing each wheezing breath shutter out of Dean's mouth.

The first thing he found was a first-aid kit, which was a relief considering that their own kit was still in the impala, and after digging around for a few more seconds he came across a few bottles of water that had fallen out of the fridge and into the mud that was seeping through the broken windows that were face-down in the creek. He gave a prayer of thanks and scrambled back over to his brother who had let his head fall back onto the uncomfortable cabinets he was situated on.

Dean didn't protest when Sam went to remove his tattered shirt and jacket, resting his forehead against the wood as his younger brother rolled him over and pulled the sleeves off of his arms. Sam felt another surge of guilt rush over him as he came to Dean's hands and forearms. They were torn and bloody from the burn of the rope he had been holding earlier, forcing Sam to fight back another wave of emotions.

Just as he had expected, there were more puncture wounds wrapped around his brother's back. He slowly pulled the shirt and jacket off the rest of the way, noting how the fabric seemed to have glued itself to the bloody wounds. Not letting his mind dwell on the horror of what he was looking at, Sam quickly unscrewed the bottle of water, rolling his brother back so that his stomach was accessible, and then slowly began to pour the clear liquid over the inflamed bite marks.

Dean's body flinched as the cool liquid hit his skin, letting a gasp cross his lips before going quiet again. Sam was happy to see relief flood over his face as the acidic spit was washed away. The sizzling on the wound vanished with the saliva, flowing down the ridges of the hunter's muscular abdomen along with the brown mud that had stained his paling skin.

Pulling out one of the cleanest towels he had been able to find, Sam began to dab at the dirty wound in order to see clearly what kind of injury he was dealing with. The moment he started however, Dean pushed his hands away, squinting as he reopened his eyes to look upon his confused little brother.

"S'm" he mumbled "you gotta call Bobby…" he took a moment to catch his breath "gotta clean this mess up."

"What? Dean no. These wounds are serious. We'll deal with the cleanup afterward" Sam argued, bringing the stained towel back to his brother's belly.

"Sam" Dean said again, grabbing his hand "dad always said *pant* the one thing more important than *pant* killing our target is cleaning up after the hunt. We can't have-"

"But Dean-"

"We can't have some hiker come waltzing by and seeing this-"

"You're in pain Dean. Please just let me-"

"Dude, chill. I'll survive, now stop doing that motherly thing you do so often and call friggin Bobby."

To Dean's surprise, Sam placed the towel aside and turned away, crawling to the end of the camper to where the bed was, slanted with the base of the Airstream. Pulling the scythe up, he began to cut away at the fabric holding it to the frame.

Dean rolled his head back, sighing with relief as he let his eyes follow his younger brother suspiciously. "Bout time you decided to- whoa… hey Sam… are you-are you crying?"

Sam had attempted to keep his face hidden as he worked at removing the mattress. He hated how his emotions had gotten away from him when Dean had rejected his help once again. The tears had welled up in his eyes despite how he tried to keep them in, breaking free and streaming down his cheeks.

"Dude, Sam, I'm hurt not dying. Nothing to worry about" Dean continued, clearly worried about what had gotten to his brother.

The taller man paused from his busywork, letting his shoulders drop.

"It's not that."

"Well what is it then?"

"Nothing Dean! It's nothing."

"Oh really? You expect me to believe that crap?"

"No… I guess not."

"Then what? Is it me? Is it because I didn't tell you about this sooner?"

"No Dean! No…" Sam dropped his head, bringing his large hands to his head. "It's … it's me."

Dean looked at him like he'd grown a third eye.

"…Sam?"

Finally turning to look at his brother, Sam took a shaky breath to control his emotions.

"It's that I can't… there's nothing I can do to fix what I've done…"

"Wha-?"

"How many times have I hurt you Dean? How many times have I not been there for you?… and I know that I did horrible things while my soul was in the pit. I know it wasn't really me, but I see how you struggle to put your trust in me again. You try to hide it, but you … it's in the small things… like how you keep your pain to yourself and don't let me help you. How you don't trust me to keep you safe… and I hate it because I want so badly to make things right… but I've screwed everything up so much already that I can't even try. I've failed you… and I just want… I hoped… I hoped that at least patching you up would be a small way for me to…"

"Sam…" Dean spoke softly, his voice coated with surprise and confusion.

"I'm just so sorry Dean… I-"

"Sam" Dean interrupted again, this time with more force "listen to me."

Sam looked away from his brother, embarrassed by the shame and sadness covering his face.

Dean didn't turn his gaze away, though the pain in his stomach tempted him to squeeze his eyes shut to block it out.

"You're wrong…" he panted "this wasn't about you… I know I haven't let you care for me, and that I've been difficult, but you're … it's not that. This hunt meant so much; like I could do one more thing I knew dad would be proud of."

Sam returned eye contact with his brother again, confusion and doubt replacing his earlier expressions.

"It's just *pant* the lines between right and wrong were so clear when dad *pant* laid it out for us… and I want to get this job done as smoothly and efficiently as he expected of us. Getting hurt… well I didn't want to mess it up."

Sam looked back at him in disbelief, "Dean, getting bitten by a giant snake messes things up; it's not something you decide for yourself."

Dean gave a huffing laugh in response. "Yeah, I suppose not..."

"But you said that things couldn't be the way they were before, and you're trying to treat me the same but I know you struggle to rely on me like you used to."

A muffled groan escaped Dean's lips and he allowed his eyes to shut. "Sam, you're still my little brother, and I'd do anything for you… nothing has changed."

Sam ripped the mattress off of the frame and dragged it over to where his brother was laying.

"That's just it Dean" he said as he gently took the older hunter into his arms and lifted him onto the makeshift bed, "you're still recklessly look out for me and care for me, but its seems like a hopeless cause for me to try to make things right… and patching you up was one way I had hoped to start… but you can't even trust me with that."

Dean's too-clear eyes slowly opened again, looking up at the other wall of the camper, then focused his gaze back toward his brother.

"Sam…"

Placing one of his large palms oh his Dean's forehead, Sam's eyebrows creased as he took in the state of health his brother was falling into. It was to be expected that his wounds would get infected without proper treatment after running around in mud and filth. It wouldn't be long before fever set in. He wanted to smack himself for wasting time rambling about his personal feelings.

"Come on Dean" he said, lifting his hand from his brother's forehead and reaching back for the first-aid kit "let me clean you up and then I'll finish up with this mess."

He poured some water on one of the cleaner towels and took a moment to wipe away the sweat that had begun to form on Dean's face. To his surprise, the blond leaned into the cool touch, closing his eyes again and letting out a sigh.

"Alright Sammy" he said, smirking a little "I'll be a good patient… just this once."

Sam's eyes widened at his brother's words that said so much more than they let on.

"Thank you."

TBC…

Yay! Another chapter. Hope you all enjoyed it ^_^ I had this chapter done about a week ago but I got some retarded error every time I tried to update XO so annoying! but i found a loophole and hopefully this got up smoothly

Dizzo- thank you for the encouragement! I always love your work so it's really cool to get feedback from you. Do keep updating your own stories! thank you for waiting and I hope to finish up soon

Gett- I know, I apparently am addicted to cliffhangers, but hey, this one wasn't too bad :D

Mustang71- here's more ^_^ hope you enjoyed it

Slinky-and-the-BloodyWands- lol! It's so true XD often when I review h/c fanfics I show concern but inside I really don't want things to go smoothly for the brothers XD

Smalld1171- yay! Thank you I am now very happy

Moira4eku- woohoo! I'm so glad you're enjoying it the latest chapter. I really presented the sensitive side of Sam XD I just love to emphasize their relationship ^_^ cause the show portrays it so well and it makes it fun to work with. Yes, Sam does have his work set out for him, but at least Dean will be more reasonable this time.

CeCe Away- thank you so much! yeah, but at least the people who owned the trailer didn't get eaten ^_^

Mystique Aqua- ohhhh! thankyou! it means a lot when u review both chapters even when you could have waited till the last chapter :) I know I have some addiction to cliffhangers, but this last one wasn't so bad. Your reviews have really encouraged me to keep writing and have made me very very happy ^_^

Thank you all so much for the reviews! They make my day!


	6. Comfort

A light rain had started up as the sun set, its red-orange rays peaking through the broken windows of the airstream. Neither of the brothers spoke, leaving the sound of the creek water rushing against the metal walls and the water droplets pattering along its side the only noise echoing through the dented hull. The storm had passed for the most part, the dark clouds fleeing from the vibrant sky, leaving only a few scattered showers of rain as a vestige of its existence.

Dean felt an alien feeling of peace as his brother worked over him, the pain from his wounds dulling a bit as his body began to numb itself. He knew he wasn't out of the woods yet, acknowledging that as he lay there that Sam was already getting out the disinfectant and rags to clean out the wound. Pushing the thought of the coming experience aside, he focused on enjoying the warmth of the sun that had made its way through some of the windows and hit his chilled skin. Aside from that it was cold inside, the water rushing along the sides of the Airstream working as their own cooling system.

Letting his eyes drift around the camper, he allowed the rare sense of calm happiness take over, his vision blurring as he closed his eyes and felt a small smile form on his lips.

"Dean? Hey Dean, you stay with me man" he heard Sam say, his worried voice breaking through his dazed state. A cool hand touched his forehead, and despite how cold he was, it felt good.

He lazily opened his eyes again, struggling to focus in on his brother as the whole room blurred.

"I'm with y' S'mmy" he said, as he found his brother's face, recognizing the concerned expression formed by Sam's creased eyebrows.

"Ok Dean, I'm about to clean out the bite with some antiseptic, so get ready."

Dean nodded and lifted his eyes to look at the ceiling, trying to find something to keep his mind off of the discomfort he was about to experience. Nothing seemed to catch his eye so he found himself looking back at his little brother who, as usual, helped him focus and keep his pain from consuming him. It was always like this, and usually not in the physical sense as much as it was his emotional pain that Sam saved him from. Sam was his comfort, the one that kept him sane, his other self that held that bond of family intact. Through all they had been through, he had come to realize that life wasn't worth living unless he had someone else in it that meant more to him than his own self.

There was a moment when the only thing he felt was the cool liquid being poured onto his stomach, then the pain hit. He arched back, gripping the thin mattress with all of his might and suppressed a yell. More of the burning liquid poured over him, filling the numerous puncture wounds on his abdomen and he squeezed his eyes shut, letting an agonizing groan make its way out of his throat and he tried to shift away from the source of the pain.

"Dean, no, you have to stay still. Don't make this harder than it is." Sam's apologetic voice broke a little as he struggled to hold Dean still. He didn't want his brother to injure himself any more than he already had, but he hated himself for what he had to do.

Dean put a valiant effort into complying too his younger sibling's wishes, panting heavily with pain but holding himself still for Sam to work. His anguished eyes squinted open, the liquid pools of green searching the room for some kind of comfort.

Quickly wiping the mess from his brother's stomach, Sam returned pressure to the injuries to keep them from bleeding out and grabbed the medical tape with his free hand. Ripping a long strand off with his teeth, he went to the task of bandaging the rows of puncture wounds as quickly as possible. Dean gripped the edges of the dirty mattress tightly and closed his eyes again, turning his head to the side.

It was a few minutes later that he finished up Dean's front, letting out a sigh and wiping his face with his forearm. He gave his brother a moment to catch his breath, not looking forward to doing the same procedure on the other side.

Dean's breathing came out in rapid pants, clearly trying to calm himself but his body remaining tense. Setting aside the antiseptic and bandages Sam reached out and placed a large hand on his brother's shoulder, hoping to transfer some comfort to him. Though the consolement did not render an immediate reaction, after a few minutes Dean's breathing slowed and he let himself relax. Sam closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, wishing he wouldn't have to be the one to end it.

"How're you holding up bro?" he said, leaning over and waiting to meet Dean's eyes if they were to open. As expected, the glassy orbs peaked through slits of dark lashes as they almost hesitantly made their way open.

"I'm peachy Sam" Dean responded, his tone leaving his brother wondering whether he was trying to calm the tension or to insult him.

"Well" he responded "don't get too comfortable cause we still have the back to take care of."

"Seriously? And here I was about to forget about it."

Dean's snarky response clarified that he was not in a sweet mood and that his former statement had indeed been an insult.

Sam rolled his eyes, "hey, you said you would be good and let me patch you up without any trouble."

"Sticks and stones Sammy, I can be a good patient and say what I want."

"And I can take care of these bite wounds without babying you as well."

"If that was your idea of babying, then I don't want to know what the alternative is."

"Then be nice."

"I'm bein' nice."

Sam sighed and rolled his eyes again, knowing that both of them would rather get stuck in a banter than deal with the rest of Dean's injuries.

They sat there a moment longer until Dean broke the silence.

"Alright, let's get this over with" he said as he attempted to roll himself over on to his stomach. Knowing his brother was too weak to do what he had in mind, Sam quickly placed his large palms under his back to gently turn him. He grimaced at the dark bloodstain left on the mattress where the blond had been resting.

Dean moaned but leaned in with Sam's support, letting him maneuver him to where the under-bite was clearly visible. Moving hastily, the younger hunter repeated the painstaking process of cleaning and patching up the incisions on his brother's back.

By the time he had finished, Dean was breathing harshly into the dirty mattress, his eyes glazed and barely open. He didn't react when Sam began rubbing the unmarred side of his back, trying to soothe the strained muscled that had remained tense since the cleaning of the wound.

Assured that his brother was efficiently taken care of, Sam dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell-phone which, to his relief, was still functional after their wet battle with the snake. He quickly hit Bobby's speed dial and anxiously waited for the ring tone, praying that there was a signal where they were. To his relief, there was a bar on the screen and within a few seconds he heard the old mechanic's voice on the other end.

"Hey Bobby, its Sam" he said, looking down at Dean who had apparently managed to get his breathing down and was looking at him as he spoke.

"Yeah we're alright, but Dean's pretty banged u- yeah it's done, we killed i- dang it Bobby don't sound like you were expecting us to be dead or something."

He heard Dean snort in amusement.

"I know it's soon but the thing jumped us not too long after we started looking. Hey, but we need some help cleaning up after the kill cause, as you can imagine, it was messy… and Dean might need some more medical attention that I can give… yeah… yeah… and a tow truck if you can spare one."

Sam noticed that Dean was trying to get his attention so he put his hand over the phone and leaned over.

"Tell im' to bring a camera."

"What?"

"A camera Sam, you know, the little box that you take pictures with-"

"I know what a camera is Dean" Sam said impudently, "why?"

"Hey, if there was ever a time to take pictures it's after you've killed a legendary snake with two scythes and an airstream trailer."

Sam made a "good point" face and returned to the phone. "And a camera... wait, what? You just got off a hunt?... Ok… alright… right, I think we can hold out till then."

Dean looked at him questioningly but didn't say anything.

When the younger hunter closed his cell-phone he sighed and went to roll his brother over onto his back.

"So, as you heard, Bobby just got off a hunt and is… several hours away."

"Several meaning?"

"Like… ten."

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me."

"I wish."

"Well" Dean sighed, shifting in an effort to get comfortable on the oddly angled mattress, "I guess we'd better hunker down and hope no tourist stumbles upon this mess."

"Ooor, I could take you to the hospital and deal with the mess when Bobby gets here."

"Dude, Sam, I'm not dying."

"Yeah, since those are the only occasions appropriate for going to a hospital."

"You know its risky man, and besides, I don't remember passing any on our way up here. I'd guess that the closest one is a few hours out anyway."

Sam sighed again, clearly not liking the idea of his brother spending the night on the ceiling of a totaled trailer in the middle of a frigid creek. He had already seen signs of infection in the bite marks his brother was sporting, and wished he could at least give the comfort of a real bed and a somewhat sanitary environment to him.

The two sat there for another minute and Sam assumed that Dean was falling asleep until his brother broke the silence.

"You know what I liked about this hunt" he said, making Sam raise his eyebrows.

"Are you serious?"

Dean ignored him and continued "no monologuing."

"Really" Sam replied, his voice hitching with amusement.

"Yeah, I mean, it feels like everything we hunt now-a-days has something retarded to say that usually ends up ruining our lives or something."

"Good point" Sam replied with a grin "it was nice to kill something without it whining about it."

Dean laughed, his breath catching as a jolt of pain shot across his stomach.

Sam frowned, acknowledging the annoyed look on his brother's face that his injury had interrupted their conversation. Getting up and hobbling on his good leg, he began digging around through the cabinets, some of which were partially filled with muddy water or hanging open, having spilled their contents during the tumble down the embankment.

He didn't know exactly what he was looking for but was hoping to find something to make their night a bit more pleasant.

Dean, though disappointed that the lighthearted conversation had come to an end, was glad to get a chance to shut his eyes. The warmth of the sun had left with the coming of night, and the mud engulfing the camper was growing chilled from the crisp autumn air, but he doubted that the biting cold he was feeling had anything to do with that. His body was growing weak, partially from blood loss, but he knew that a fever was setting in and he hoped it wouldn't stress Sam out. The big oaf was already going mother-hen on him and probably needed as much rest and medical attention as he was getting.

"Sam, you should stop making a mess and take care of that leg."

"Dude, how could I possibly make any more of a mess? And besides, I found…" he paused as he sorted through his stash, "Captain Crunch."

Dean grinned as his brother raised the box triumphantly.

"How about you give the box to me and go deal with your leg."

"So considerate of you" Sam said sarcastically.

Carrying the cereal and two Capri-suns, Sam made his way back over to his brother and what was left of the first-aid kit. After opening the box and ripping into the bag, he granted Dean his request and handed him the box and began to take a look at his leg.

It was slow going to have to patch up his own injury but he wasn't about to let his brother know he was having trouble with it. After several minutes he had wrapped his leg and looked over the rest of his body for any other damages.

Looking back over at his brother he felt his heart drop seeing that Dean had fallen asleep and had hardly touched the Captain Crunch. He knew his brother probably needed the rest, but the older hunter looked anything but rested. His face was flushed and his breathing uneven, his eyebrows furrowed in pain.

Sam scooted closer to his shivering brother and felt the heat radiating off of the blond's body. Placing a large hand gently on Dean's forehead, he let out a sad sigh. He had considered hauling him back up the slope and driving off the mountain to find a motel, but the idea of what that would put Dean through made a cold night in the camper seem to be the lesser of the two evils.

"You stay with me Dean" he said quietly. It was going to be a long night.

To be continued...

Thank you all so much for reading! I am sorry for the late update but I have been traveling the world and just returned from two overseas trips this morning. I hope you guys have kept my story in the back of your minds and will finish it up with me. I have one more chapter and I will have finally finished a full fanfic :D

Lykaia- im so glad you found it and it makes me so happy you have enjoyed it

mustang71- thank you, your welcome :)

smalld1171- I love hurt Dean as well _ and i wish the series had more brotherly bonding that makes the show so great. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story

Shadow.- daww -^_^- thank you so much. I hate how long it has taken me to update but hopefully now that I'm back I will be able to finish rather quickly. It makes me so happy you like my style XD in fact that makes me very very happy. I hope I haven't made you wait too long T_T

Katie1227- apparently not -_-' but this was as quickly as I could! I am very sorry for my delay and I hope that you enjoy the rest of the story. Thanks for reviewing :)


	7. The Long Night

Sam had been losing the fight against dozing off since his brother had lost consciousness, and decided to draw his attention to the odd look of the Airstream's interior. It looked like one of the hallways in Bobby's house for a reason Sam couldn't quite pinpoint.

"Well, if we're at Bobby's, why don't we go to a nice cozy room with a warm bed" he mumbled to himself. Then he realized how ridiculous it sounded and cocked his head at his own statement.

"Definitely need to get some sleep… but I can't just leave you unwatched" he sighed, looking over at Dean, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully.

"Now, why is this place an old hallway? Who would decorate a camper-"

Suddenly, there was a noise outside of the airstream that caused Sam to jump a bit. Up to that point the only sound that could be heard was the faint pattering of rain on the metal walls and the soft flow of water from the shallow stream they were sitting in.

What had caught Sam's attention was the eerie movement that could be heard outside in the darkness. A distant chuckle blended in with the rest of the natural sounds in the darkness. It didn't sound human, like a guttural hiss, but it was a laugh that sent chills down his spine. He couldn't even come up with any other scenario to calm himself down or to give himself some sense of false security; it could only have been the snake he had killed earlier that day.

_But how?_ he thought as his heart began to race, _I cut off its head._

He glanced around frantically for a scythe but to his horror, he couldn't remember where he had placed the weapons.

"They have to be around here somewhere" he reassured himself as he searched frantically around the broken cabinets, then he dove his hands into the dark mud they had been sinking into.

"Looking for something?"

Sam could have sworn he felt his heart stop at the sound of the voice above him. It was the same as the laugh, not human and gurgling, but a clear sign of intelligent thought. The moonlight that had been shining in was now blocked off by a black shape in the broken window and Sam looked up in horror to see the head of the giant snake peering down with those chilling milky-blue eyes. It was still severed, the rest of its body missing, but it was clearly far from dead.

"How…? I- This can't be happening…"

The mouth of the creature had blood flowing out of it with each of its heaving breaths which, as its dying wheezes puffed out, resembling those of a gasping fish; however, the sound of the gurgling air reflected that of a predator anticipating feasting on its prey rather than weakness.

"You're a thief Sam."

His eyes widened with shock as the monsters voice echoed into the small confinement, his panic and confusion heightening to a new level. The irony of the creature speaking so soon after he had talked to Dean about monologuing caused a laugh to build up in him that made him wonder if he had lost his mind.

"This can't be real" he spoke to the head, feeling that responding to it confirmed his insanity "you can't speak… and even if you could, how do you speak English?"

"Because you do" it responded, wiggling into the small opening.

He wouldn't have thought the huge head could fit into the broken window, but before he could think of how to prevent it from getting in, the creature had dropped down into the murky sediment they were wallowing in. It was only two or three feet from Dean which was the first thing that crossed Sam's mind when it fell in.

"Dean! Dean wake up man!"

Sam wanted to charge over to get between his brother and the giant snake head but it felt like some unseen force was holding him fast where he was.

Dean didn't stir.

"WAKE UP!"

He was getting desperate as the monster wiggled through the mud, closing the gap between the injured hunter and itself. Sam shouted as he fought against what was holding him back, but it showed to be futile.

"Wait! Stop!" he tried to think up some way to distract the creature from Dean but his mind was drawing a blank.

The severed head was now at the side of the mattress and easily it tipped the bed enough for his injured brother to roll toward its mouth.

"No no no! Stop!"

It was too late. As soon as Dean slid into the snake's snout, it opened its jaws and let his limp body roll in. The creature didn't close its mouth however, but sat there, almost tauntingly staring at Sam with its murky eyes.

"You can understand me" Sam said desperately "so you have some kind of conscience. Please, please don't do this! I'll do anything!"

"You killed me" was its response, which sounded more deep and guttural than before. Blood continued to flow out of its mouth, covering Dean's body that lay limply inside.

"You're not dead though" he said, more so to his own shock than in defense of his actions.

"Because you're insane Sam" it said back. "I can't talk, and I am dead; you've just lost it. And look, I've made you're brother crazy to."

The monster jolted Dean hard enough to wake him from his sleep, causing the wounded hunter to breathe in a painful gasp and open his eyes.

"Dean!"

His brother was lying at an awkward angle, his torso being supported by the snake's powerful jaws, but the rest of him was left hanging limp, including his head that he could not support so it also was left tilted back.

"Dean, I can't move! You have to get out of there!"

Sam saw the older hunter turn his head to look at him, and what he saw caused his heart to race with panic and horror.

Dean's eyes were milky blue, with no pupils, just like the snake's. They peered, unseeing, straight at him, but his brother's eyebrows were still creased in pain which indicated that he was still conscious.

"You see Sam, I've made him insane; and if you could see yourself, you would know you also have gone insane."

Sam was shaking with the terror of realization. Without even looking he knew that his eyes had also been turned to the milky-blue color.

"Don't worry though" the creature spoke again "your brother won't be insane long."

Before Sam could speak the snake slowly closed its jaws down on Dean who, upon feeling the returned pressure of the many fangs that lines the monster's mouth, began to pant and wheeze in pain.

"No! Stop!" Sam screamed, but the snake continued to close its mouth down on his now writhing brother.

Dean began to yell once the monster's teeth broke skin and seeped down into his strained muscles and Sam looked on in horror as the blood that had been steadily flowing from the snake's mouth was accompanied by a new flow of crimson that could only belong to his brother.

"Sam!" Dean gasped weakly as he struggled, his head arching back further with the unbearable pain. Then he called his brother's name again, this time as a scream.

"DEAN! NO!" Sam was crying as he tried to fight to move, but he remained where he was.

Blood coughed out of his brother's mouth as the snake completely closed it's jaws and Sam screamed in despair as Dean's breaths became more agonizingly labored, then they silenced. Dean's pain-stricken features went lax and his eyes were left gazing, unseeing at the ceiling.

"He won't be crazy long" Sam heard the creature say, almost soothingly.

Then he felt himself sinking deeper into the mud and he tried to fight against it only to find himself still immobile.

"No. NO! DEAN!" He screamed- and then everything was dark.

Everything was dark, but Sam could still hear the labored breathing of his brother and the flow of water outside.

Finding that he could move again, he scrambled up to get to his brother who, once his vision adjusted to the darkness, he found was much closer than he thought. There was no snake to be found, but Sam realized that he was panting and his heart rate was alarmingly high.

"A-a dream?" he gasped out in relief, lowering his head to Dean's mattress and allowing himself to relax.

The panic kept hold of him despite this realization, and though they were clearly alone, Sam couldn't help but think about the irrational fear of the creature being alive outside of the trailer. Despite calming his breathing down, Sam's heart continued to race as he considered checking outside.

Then, as if he was dragged to another center of focus, he heard Dean's continuous gasps and noted him writhing beside him.

"Crap, sorry man" he said, redirecting his attention to his suffering brother. He then realized that what he had heard in his dream might have actually been Dean.

He was heartbroken when Dean didn't consciously acknowledge him being nearby, but continued to breathe heavily, his eyebrows creased in pain.

Sam grabbed one of the cleaner rags and poured some water from a Deer Park bottle into it, wiping his brother's forehead. He smiled slightly when Dean's expression softened with the cool touch and continued the soothing process until the blond seemed to fall back into a restful sleep.

Being left with nothing to busy himself with, Sam found himself growing sleepy again. The thought of falling back into that hellish sleep scared him so he got to his feet and decided to face his fears and take a look outside.

Quiet, so not to disturb his brother, he climbed up the side of the built-in bunk beds and brought his hands up to grab a hold of the windowsill. Pulling himself up with his strong forearms, he lifted himself up and out of the trailer.

The rain had died down to only a few drops of water and the small creek could not be seen below due to the darkness that had fallen over the forest. It was colder than inside due to the wind that swept over his back, causing his long hair to whip across his face.

The blackness before him caused his fear from earlier to resurface. The smell of decay was faint due to the breeze, but it still was enough to make him uncomfortable as he tried to see into the muddy creek. The moonlight was faint but still managed to reflect off of the water and the shine of the metallic trailer.

Squinting, he scooted himself the rest of the way out of the trailer. He didn't like being alone when faced with the unknown. In this case, it wasn't so much of not knowing what he was up against, but the heightened fears his dream had awoken in his imagination that he was struggling with.

Taking a deep breath, he scooted across the wet metal and got as close as he could to the edge without slipping over. He was relieved to see the moonlight rays glistening off of what was left of the monster's body that remained trapped beneath the camper's weight.

Sighing, he let his head drop forward with either embarrassment for his paranoia or relief that his logic had won out. But that wasn't enough, he wanted to see the head. It must have fallen under the shadow of the trailer, for he couldn't see if from where he was sitting.

For a moment he considered crawling back inside as to save himself the humiliation of getting worked up like a child afraid of the monster in the closet. Of course… considering he knew that a monster being in the closet was completely liable concept, he couldn't think of himself as being too paranoid.

Making up his mind, he figured it never hurt to be safe and he wanted his mind to be distracted a bit longer before he risked falling back to sleep.

With a deep breath he allowed himself to slide down the rounded frame into the blackness. Careful of his injured ankle, he dropped down and was surprised at how deep the water actually was and created a decently sized splash as he landed. Struggling back to his feet he worked to keep his balance as the water of the creek rushed into his legs.

It was too dark to see anything, so he closed his eyes and tried to remember where the snake head had fallen. Sloshing to where he remembered he felt his way forward, his fear edging its way back into the forefront of his mind. Suddenly he wished he had brought a scythe, but he figured his pride had kept him from grabbing one; he was only checking after all.

Finally his hands touched something cold and slimy, causing him to jump a bit; but the substance didn't move under his hand and he let out a sigh. He knew it was the head, and the thought of touching it freaked him out.

Satisfied that the monster was still dead, he felt a bit silly standing in the mud and quickly made his way back to the camper.

Getting back up to the window was considerably harder in the dark but with a few attempts he managed to make his way back down into the airstream and return to his brother's side. He didn't mind trailing mud in due to the fact that the camper had sunk a few inches into the stream and the entire floor was filled with sediment.

Sighing, Sam scooted onto the mattress; not wanting to crowd Dean, but wanting to be close none the less.

"Sm'?" he heard Dean mumble incoherently, "wh-where'd you go?"

Sam was surprised that his brother had even noticed his absence, and even more surprised that he was conscious enough to question him about it. It made him happy that his brother seemed to be with him other than in body.

"I got spooked about the snake if you can believe that" he said "and decided to go make sure it was dead."

Dean's breathing was uneven and weak and Sam figured he was struggling to focus, but he responded anyway.

"Did it have somthn' to do with that nightmare you had?"

Sam blinked in surprise, "how did you?"

"You kept shouting for me, and here I was trying to sleep."

"But you- but you weren't conscious when I woke up."

"Seems I managed to sleep despite your ruckus somehow."

"You mean you passed out."

"You said it, not me."

The two sat in silence for a while; Dean's wheezes of pain mixing in with the sound of water hitting the metallic roof of their lodging.

Sam considered fighting to stay awake but soon found himself dozing again, slipping into a more peaceful sleep.

"Aren't you two just adorable."

It was Bobby's voice, followed by the flash of a camera.

Sam blinked his eyes open and realized that a warm light was baking his chilled skin and he assumed that morning had finally come. The whole night he had been miserable with cold, but being closer to his brother had kept his fears at bay, which reminded him of when they were little. Suddenly he felt very childish for his actions the night before and decided not to speak of it to anyone.

"You guys set yourself up for some serious blackmail" Bobby continued, interrupting Sam's train of thought.

Letting his vision refocus, he realized that he had snuggled in next to Dean at some point during the night, for reasons he assured himself had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with body heat. Looking up, he saw that Bobby had a camera in his hand and realized what the man had meant when he said "blackmail." Quickly he rolled away from his brother and scrambled to get to his feet.

"Bobby, you delete that right now."

"Delete? Did you think I could own a digital camera? Sorry Sam, but I don't do the computer thing, this is an oldschool click and twist Kodak."

Sam couldn't think of a good response to what the mechanic had said, so he sighed and turned to wake Dean up. Besides, he couldn't really think of many people that Bobby could show the picture to that would really cause them much trouble.

"You guys gonna sleep all day or are we gonna get this thing out of here?"

"Hey, give him a break" Sam said defensively "he's seriously injured in case you didn't notice."

"Well, in case YOU didn't notice, we aren't quite inconspicuous out here. It's a miracle no one's seen the mess you've made yet and I don't want to push our luck.

Sam pouted at him but turned and put a hand on his brother's shoulder, shaking it gently.

Dean grunted and struggled to get his eyes open.

"Sorry Dean, but Bobby's here and we've got to get going."

Nothing could have made Sam happier than the yawn that came out of his brother's mouth when he finally came to. It made him feel like Dean was simply waking from a deep sleep rather than a night of suffering. The wince and moan of pain reminded him that the injury his brother had was still serious.

"I would ask for five more minutes, but to be honest I'm sick of this bed" Dean mumbled as he cocked his head toward the two standing men. His flushed face was looking much healthier but he looked like the night had taken a lot out of him and he was clearly much weaker than he had been the last time Sam had seen him.

"I hate to say it, but you look terrible Dean" Bobby said, a hint of a joke in his voice, but also a coating of genuine sympathy.

"It'Sam's fault."

"Was not!" Sam responded defensively, but inside he had already been blaming himself.

"Don't worry Dean, I'm sure Sam shoved you into the creature's mouth."

"Sure did."

The humor made Sam smile, as if accusation of attempted murder made Dean's injury almost superfluous.

Hating to cause his brother discomfort, but knowing that time was running out for them to not be spotted by some random tourists, he hobbled over to grab the sheets (which were now completely brown with mud) and began to tie them into a makeshift hammock.

"And what the heck are you intending to do with that?" Dean demanded.

"Well I don't think you'll be climbing out of here yourself."

"Well I don't think I want to be hauled up like a horse caught in the mud."

"You have a better idea?"

"… I stay in here until we can roll this thing over and leave out the door."

"I said better idea."

"Saaaaam" Dean whined.

"You're getting in this thing and there isn't really much you can do about it."

"What about my pride?"

"What about it? You said that you would be a good patient, and from what I can see, you still are unless you have some miraculous healing spurt before we get you in this thing."

Dean opened his mouth to respond, but seemed to be at a loss for words so he shut it quickly.

Bringing the sheets over to his brother's side, Sam laid them out so he could easily lift him onto the muddy cloth. Bobby moved over to help him do the lifting and Dean let out a sigh of acceptance.

It worried Sam when his brother remained lax in their arms, head lolling with the movement of his body and moans seeping out from his mouth. As gentle as they were, he still was left with a cold sweat on his body and his eyes closed wearily.

"Having second thoughts about climbing out of here?" Sam said jokingly but with a soft tone.

Dean moaned then cracked a moist eye open to look at his younger brother.

"Well now that I'm snuggled in."

Sam smiled softly at him then looked to Bobby who motioned to the window skylight as if you say "you first."

"I'll help from down here but I trust in your ability to haul this guy out of here over mine so go ahead and scurry up there so we can get your brother out of here."

Sam nodded and made his way out of the window, swinging his legs around so that he was on his knees, he reached down for the other end of the sheets. Bobby apologized as he pulled Dean up into a sitting position which earned him a muffled yell of pain as the bite-wounds on the young hunter's stomach scrunched together. They were all grateful for Sam's unnaturally long arms as he grabbed a hold of the sheets with his strong hands and pulled up his precious cargo.

By the time Dean was up to the window Sam felt like his back was going to give out on him, but he managed to get his arms under his brother's armpits and heave backward, using his own weight as leverage. The two of them collapsed in a heap, Sam reaching a hand out to grab the slick metal to keep them from sliding off.

For a moment they just sat there catching their breath, the cool fall breeze hitting their backs as Sam brought his arms forward into a hug as Dean rode through the pain of his wounds being shifted. Gasping, he managed to chuckle, opening his eyes and staring up at the now clear sky.

"I think that went pretty well" he panted with a touch of humor in his voice.

"You're doing great Dean" Sam said, ignoring his brother's sarcasm "now we just have to get you to the car."

"You gonna use a crane?"

"You're lucky I didn't bring one." Bobby said as he crawled out of the broken window.

The mechanic scowled at them when they both snickered as he struggled to pull himself through the opening.

"Looks like I'm not the only one needing a crane" Dean smirked as Bobby finally rolled onto the side of the Airstream.

"Shut up."

Getting Dean down from the camper proved to be much easier than pulling him out of it and soon the three of them were standing in knee-deep mud, Sam holding Dean up knowing that he wouldn't want to be left wallowing in the small creek.

"Alright, Sam and I will take you to the car before we get to hauling this mess away" Bobby said, looking up at the dreadful slope they would have to climb.

"It's not gonna be fun but-"

"Hold up Bobby" Dean interrupted "there's something we have to do before we go anywhere."

"And what is that?"

"We gotta take a picture with our world-record catch" he replied grinning.

"What? Are you serious?"

"Oh come on! We're hunters, and don't usually hunters get something back from their hunting? It seems like everything we kill always ends up burning up or disappearing once we're done with it. For once we actually get to enjoy the spoils."

"You want to mount the head?"

"Heck yeah!"

"Dean!" Sam interrupted "that is the last thing I want to see on anyone's wall." He thought back to his dream the night before and shuttered.

Dean pouted at him but seemed to accept his brother's objection to the idea.

"Alright alright, so just the picture. Well lets hurry up and take it before the day comes to an end." Bobby was growing impatient so they quickly took the photo and got back to work.

Getting Dean up to the car proved to be terribly difficult with him being unable to carry his own weight. Bobby couldn't carry him by himself, and while Sam insisted on helping, the height difference and his injured leg made the trip excruciatingly awkward and slow. By the time they reached the top of the slope they were all exhausted and covered in mud, falling into a heap in front of Bobby's tow truck and the Impala.

About two-thirds of the way up Dean had lost consciousness and the other two had practically dragged him the rest of the way. Sam gently placed him in the front seat and went to assist Bobby in getting ready to head out.

It turned out that Bobby had already hooked a long cable to the damaged airstream, which Sam could only imagine must have been exhausting, not counting the fact that he had been up driving all night.

Sam helped as best he could to dig the trailer out of the deep mud while Bobby took care of the snake's remains. By the time they had dragged themselves back up the hill and towed the mess up Sam was near the point of collapse and his ankle was screaming for attention. Bobby helped him to the Impala and let him rest while he finished towing the rest of the wreckage up and prepared the load for the ride back. Four cars passed from the time he started, but despite the mess they had made, no-one seemed to feel that they were important enough to put their day-plans on hold.

Finishing up by covering everything with a large tarp, Bobby made his way back to the brothers who were still unconscious to the living world. Sighing as he looked down at the closest people he ever came to calling sons, he smiled. They looked downright exhausted, but also, there was a sense of peace as they slept in that old car that he hadn't seen in a long time.

Hating to do it, he placed a hand on Sam's shoulder and shook him awake.

"Hrm? Wha-"

"Sorry Sam, but we've got to get a move on."

- three days later in a random neighborhood-

David Michaels had returned brokenhearted with his family after their camper had been stolen and had made it home after some friendly fellow-campers had lent them a ride. His two kids had stopped crying a few hours after they'd returned from the picnic and had all but gotten over their loss by the time they had gotten to their own beds.

Still, he couldn't believe what had happened. Couldn't figure out who would go through all the trouble of going to the mountains to steal a trailer.

Grabbing a cup of coffee in one hand and the trash in the other, he walked out to his porch and yawned. It was too early in the morning for the kids to be up and his wife was inside fixing breakfast so he dumped the garbage into the can by the rode and reached down to get the newspaper.

Returning to his full height, he finally looked out at the street only to have his vision blocked by a massive tarp with a note stuck to it. Blinking in surprise, he took the note and opened it up, reading the words scribbled inside.

"Dear Mr. Michaels

We found a phone in your trailer and after a few calls we got your address. I believe this Airstream belongs to you. We needed to borrow it for a few days and are sorry that we didn't ask permission. The situation was dire and time was of the essence so we couldn't wait for you return. It's a little worse for wear so we added a little gift to reconcile our debt. This should break a world record or something.

Thanks,

Your friendly neighborhood huntsmen"

Cocking his head in confusion David let his eyes turn up from the card toward the tarp once again. He called for his wife to come out as he reached his hands up and began to remove the plastic covering the huge object underneath.

By the time Mrs. Michaels stepped out of the door, he had already slid the tarp off of the lost Airstream that was now hardly recognizable with the numerous dents, scratches and mud splotches. However, what caught their attention was the huge snake body wrapped around the base of the camper. He stumbled back and his wife gasped in shock at the spectacle on their driveway.

"I-is that real?" she muttered with her hand to her mouth.

"I think so" he replied, hardly believing his own words, "can you even imagine how much this thing is worth?"

It was by far the oddest thing he had ever seen or heard of, but he was darn well happy with how things had turned out.

- Epilogue -

-That evening-

Sam and Dean sat on Bobby's porch after eating a surprisingly delicious supper, apparently fixed by a neighbor who had formerly had a crush on him, but now was just trying to get a grasp on the concept of him being a hunter. Fortunately for them, she still brought him an occasional dish to enjoy.

The sight before them was not a glorious one, with rows of old rusty cars piled on top of one another as their front yard, but the sky had turned to nice color of yellow and orange that reflected off of what metal still had shine to it.

They sat side-by-side on the steps drinking coke from worn-out glass bottles, neither speaking. Dean was still very weak and beneath his t-shirt and jacket where a freshly wrapped batch of bandages but he played tough enough to make things feel almost back to normal.

Sighing, he leaned back and smiled. "Ya know Sammy, a few months ago I would never have thought we could ever do this again."

Sam turned, giving his brother his full attention. He hoped to hide how happy he was that Dean was actually talking about his feelings without fighting tooth and nail to keep from letting them out so he kept silent, his brows furrowed with attentive focus.

"I thought, well, with the apocalypse and you cannon-balling into the pit, then coming back soulless… I thought that I would always have the weight of the world on my shoulders… I just can't believe that after all we've been through that I'd find myself back here after a successful hunt, sitting on Bobby's porch with my little brother."

Sam looked back out at the sunset, thinking about what Dean had said. Neither of them had seen a light at the end of the tunnel over the last few years, but then, out of the blue, here it was. The world wasn't as fragile as they had presumed it to be and the unstoppable foes that had assailed them in the past weren't quite as unstoppable as they had appeared in the beginning. He figured he had believed in hope during those dark times, otherwise he would have quit, but he couldn't remember any time that he had truly thought that things would be alright; that things would ever go back to the way they were.

"There isn't anybody in this world who could relate more man. I don't know how it happened, but I'm glad that in the end we still managed to have each-other's back."

Dean took another swallow of his coke, the sunlight reflecting off the glass bottle and hitting his face. For another few seconds neither of them spoke until he broke the silence again.

"Well Sam, I don't know what we're going to be facing in the future, and maybe this time it will be more than we can handle… but there's not much I can do about it other than keeping to what I know is good and fighting what is evil until it kills me."

Nodding, Sam turned back to his brother, looking him in the eye.

"Well whatever you decide to take on, remember that I'll be there for you when you do… and darn it, if you get hurt again you tell me."

Dean chuckled and finished his drink, turning is eyes away from his younger sibling.

It was quiet again and in the distance a dog barked. Sam had hoped that his brother would talk some more, but as the evening broke into twilight he gave in to defeat. Standing to his feet and stretching, he turned and headed back inside.

He paused at the sound of his brother's voice.

"Hey Sammy…"

"Yeah?"

"...Thanks."

"You too Dean."

**The End**

Woohoo! I've finished it! Hope you all enjoyed my little fic ^_^ I have another SPN one in mind but it will probably be a while before I start it (if I'm even able to do so).

Thank you soooooo much for all of the encouragement through these chapters!

Wunjo- dawww ^_^ thank you. I hope season 7 is loaded with brotherly love. Until then… fanfiction!

Aislynnrose2010- I'm glad you've heard of the monster ^_^ I saw the different descriptions of it and decided on this one for the story. Thanks

gett- thank you ^_^ I had a wonderful trip! And I'm so glad you enjoyed the chapter

Lykaia- awww thanks! I hope this last chapter didn't take too long -_-'

Smalld1171- :D thank you so much for your support! And I love your fics so much! Keep writing and I'll keep reading ^_^ my trips went incredibly well! I had a fantastic time. Sorry I made you wait so long for the last chapter.

Katie1227- I hope you managed to stick around for the last chapter your review was so encouraging and I totally agree, I love me some hurtDean XD I have another one in mind (a bit more hurtDean than this one *I'm awful I know*) but we'll see if I can find the time to get it started. Thank you so much! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter


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